Screw the FCC... Bring Back the Antitrust Division!

by Norman Horowitz

If a part of our media seems good to me,It’s the radio, the newspapers, and free TV.Cable would be better without Fox, you see,'Cause I just need CNN and MSNBC.CBS and Comcast still have a ball'Cause the FCC allows them to have it all.Disney and Viacom, they want it too,As long as the FCC lets them screwThe public sector that moans and criesWhen all they get from NewsCorp are great big lies.Warner Brothers want more of it too,While Americans like me and youSuffer from the power of all of them.They want it all and they says amenTo rules and regs; they got their way.Too bad about the public; they can always prayTo a God who is not with us, not here, not nowIt’s with money and power that they all know howTo con the system, and they always want more,And the politics of it all are just a bore.What you watch and what you seeIn the movies and on TVComes from a system that got that way'Cause money wants company and will always hold sway.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to change federal rules that limit companies from owning TV and radio stations in the same market. For a bonus, he also wants to do the same for TV stations and newspapers. He's circulating a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would eliminate the TV/newspaper restriction in the 20 largest markets. Genachowski’s proposal is similar to what the former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin pushed through in 2008.I say: Bring back competition, diversity, and localism!